Wolfie Kodesh interview EXCERPT

The bomb. Ja. Well, it was before December 16th of '61, when the whole thing
started, the MK started. We weren't sure whether this bomb would work and the
one who got the bomb together, was Jack Hodgson. He was a Desert Rat at one
time, and he'd been through the war ... It was just like ... a canister ... it
was put together by Hodgson with a timing device ... we wanted to see if this
would work.

I and my brother owned ... some brickworks ... We were wondering how the hell
could we get a safe place for a bomb to go off. I knew that my brother had gone
on holiday at the time. So I said I have got the place for it ... there were
holes where you got your earth from, to make the bricks. I thought that would
be perfect because next door was a big engineering works that also made a
terrific row ... So this was the place we were going ... and he insisted that
he had to come.

It was the first one that was being tested before '61, and so we went to the
brickworks, and there was a man that my brother must have left there to keep
watch, a Zulu man ... I was going to give it up. Nelson said, "No, let me speak
to him." He went and spoke to him ... to this day I don't know what he said to
him, but ... the man went away ... we went there, and put the canister down
into the hole, and we were waiting, because of the timing device, and nothing
happened. So we had to get down into the hole, bring it up again, and then
Hodgson sort of adjusted it. It was put down again in the hole, and ... it must
have been a matter of 10 seconds when there was this terrific blast. What we'd
also forgotten was that the sand in the hole was loose ... and that went up
like dust, like these pictures that you have of an atomic bomb, in a smaller
way, of course. But the dust just rose up and we ... God, we thought no, this
is not the usual bomb, the sound of a blast ... so we tumbled into the car and
drove away ... I was driving, a big '48 Chev, and instead of reversing to get
onto the path to go away I just went through the bushes jumping like this ...

But [Mandela] was overjoyed. He was congratulating everyone and congratulating
Hodgson, of course, for having succeeded in doing it. Once we knew that this
device was okay, and you can see how amateurish it was, that was only the
beginning of MK. Afterwards, of course, it became much more sophisticated. He
then insisted that Hodgson went round to various other areas, to show them how
to do it. But the point about him being there was that he was being sought, you
see. But he ... insisted that he had to be there. Nothing you could say to him
would change his mind ...

In a sense, even though it was a crazy sort of episode, it was also in it's
own crazy way, rather historic.

It was historic. It was, because we didn't have all the facilities that MK had
... later on. This was something devised by Hodgson who could devise anything.
He was a magician at that type of thing, and the way to do it. So it was a
risky thing. But one thing that we also knew is that if this device went off at
any place, it wasn't going to spread out and be very harmful to anybody.
Because, it was our policy that under no circumstances were people to be
endangered.

Was that Mandela's ... ?

Yes. Mandela's and MK. The high command of MK, ja. Oh yes. And the politicians,
particularly the politicians ... when we knew that we going to start on
December the 16th, to blast the symbolic places of apartheid, like pass
offices, native magistrates courts, and things like that ... post offices and
... the government offices. But we were to do it in such a way that nobody
would be hurt, nobody would get killed. So we had to go and sus out a place to
find out where there was very little traffic and people around. This we did on
every occasion. We would go and have a look night after night after night,
sussing out the places that we'd chosen to do. We also got a leaflet out, which
... was posted onto buildings, onto poles in the street and all over, saying
that the MK were going to have this armed action against the government, and
that in doing so, we were going to go for symbolic things of apartheid, and we
were going to make sure, that nobody was hurt or killed. Well, you can do that
up to a certain extent, I suppose, but I think that by and large we did it
brilliantly. We were able to do it because we took so much trouble to sus
places out before any action was taken.

Tell me about Mandela's role behind the decision regarding the formation of
MK...

... well, I can only put it this way, that it was made clear to anyone in MK
that they were secondary to the struggle. The first and most important side of
the struggle was the political side, and they were subject to the political
views of the movement. Now although MK was itself separated from the political
bodies at the time, nevertheless there were people like Walter Sisulu, like
Nelson Mandela, and several others, on the highest command. Then you had
several other area commands. I was an area commander. Several of us were chosen
because we were ex-soldiers ... So I think that we never, in all the time that
MK existed, had anyone who disputed that fact, that they were politicians in
soldiers clothes. And that what the politicians said, would have to be the
decision, that the movement took over and above the MK.